At the end of November, we spent a very cold and foggy weekend at a retreat in the West Midlands with 13 young people from across the UK who had previously been out to Africa on teams with Hands at Work.
Team members are often really impacted by what they’ve seen and experienced in Africa and return home and are not sure what to do next. The culture in the UK can offer many challenges to these young people. How do they live out how they’ve been impacted by Africa in their own culture and contexts? We discussed, explored and reflected on this topic with voices from our international Hands family encouraging us throughout the weekend.
The young adults dug deep and showed a deep understanding of Hands and the nine commitments – in particular ‘denying our culture’. The final activity on the weekend was to write one personal goal and one goal for the group to make sure we put actions to the things we had discussed.
It was a great weekend and the beginning of an emerging community of young people who are passionate about serving the most vulnerable in Africa, and in the UK too. We hope to run another weekend in 2020 so watch this space.